Before I started playing the guitar, before the flute and before the piano, but probably after the recorder, I longed to play the drums. Unfortunately, due to my mother’s definition of said instrument as “noise, not music,” I was confined to sporadic sessions at a friend’s house, where her older brother would teach me simple beats. The standard bass, hi-hat and snare beat was as far as my drumming ever got, but since then, my obsession with the band’s heartbeat has never waned.

For me, it’s always been about that frantic dude at the back of the stage. Maybe it’s those incredibly quick hands. Or the ability to keep rhythm so well. Lord knows how coordination has always made me swoon.

So here, in no particular order, are the eight drummers that I think kick almost as much ass as Liam Neeson in that revenge film that left me with too many questions at the end. Like, how did he escape France without the entire force of le police nationale coming down on him? Or, whatever happened to the girl’s dead best friend?

Anyway, I digress …

Travis Barker – Blink 182

Dave Grohl – Nirvana

Keith Moon – The Who

Mick Avory – The Kinks

John Bonham – Led Zeppelin

Topper Headon – The Clash

Maureen Tucker – Velvet Underground (Girls on drums. Even Better)

Stewart Copeland – The Police

Ps. I’m not entirely sure what this post has to do with Sydney (or anything really), but there will be an awful lot of drummers playing at the Big Day Out this Friday. Yes, segue FTW.

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While everyone is busying themselves with climate change, medical breakthroughs, and why creationism sucks, here at Running Ponies we feel it's important to think about that trail of ants you just sat on. It's the least you can do considering all the tiny lives you just destroyed.